String Theory

Canuck Kytami is a 21st century kind of violinist

Canadian Kyla LeBlanc—who goes by the stage name Kytami—is one of those rare innovative spirits who doubles down on experimentation.

Rather than merely adding her instrument—a violin—to a particular genre, Kytami is inventing a new category of music by merging multiple sounds into a potpourri of creativity. Hip-hop, world, trance and punk all orbit the nucleus of her violin. It's a thrilling, heart-pounding variety of electronic music that defies tradition and titillates the ears.

Earlier this year, Kytami tried to pin down where this inspiration comes from.

"I think it's from the different phases I've been through in my life," she told The Vault magazine. "For a while there I was really into hip hop, and I went to New York to find out more about it. Then I really got into drum and bass...I was hanging around Vancouver for a few years. I was playing around with a punk band then I was guesting with a metal band, so I got a lot of inspiration from there as well. In Delhi 2 Dublin I gained a lot of confidence in my song-writing skills and getting on the mic."

One of the founding members of the high energy fusion group Dehli 2 Dublin, Kytami isn't a stranger to pushing the limits. Solo, much of Kytami's sound is a churning pot of molten celtic violin and deep, almost boundless, bass. In many of her songs there is a buildup of tension so strong it's maddening; like in a horror movie, when a character walks down the long dark hall to see where the scary noise is coming from.

Live, Kytami can blow the doors off of any venue as she matches the intensity of the music by dancing around the stage in her tight hot pants and pouring out fist pumping vocals. It's equal parts infectious energy and sexy. When her hip-hop influenced music punches through, look out! The dance floor kicks into overdrive.

Ontario native Laughlin Meagher, aka DJ Boomtown, is a mad scientist of a composer who not only uses bass guitar to accent his unconventional approach to dance music, he's also been known to throw in sizzling harmonica solos and tease trance beats out of a melodica. Sounds intriguing, right?

With world beats that rail against mediocrity, DJ Boomtown creates a thundering synth that complements his inventive instrumental playground. The result is a soundscape fertile enough to produce rich imagery, including a futuristic hootenanny on the moon. Now that sounds visionary!